You may think this an odd write up, because it is in reverse, starting with the card chat. But bear with me, for there is good reason.
When I looked at the list of dates that I have been collecting, this set was recorded as January. However, when I came to write it up, I found there is a difference of opinion date wise - our Cartophilic Reference Book - No.17 : The Cigarette Card Issues of John Player - An Official Checklist Compiled by A Committee of the Cartophilic Society of Great Britain Limited" , published in 1950, saying :
- 46. CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF COURSES. Large cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey with descriptive text. Home issue June 1936.
and the London Cigarette Card Company`s 1955 catalogue listing the set as :
- 25 Championship Golf Courses (Jan. 1936).
The quandary is not solved by our World Tobacco Issues Index, either, which simply records the set as :
- CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF COURSES. Lg. Nd. (25) ... P72-76
Nor by our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, which uses the same wording as the original, save a new card code of P644-160.
The matter is only solved by looking at the entire set of cards, for on card number two, of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, the text includes the following statement : "Length of course prior to the Open Championship in June, 1936, was 6,853 yards, but alterations were made increasing length to 7,100 yards."
I was actually going to alter this card, quietly, alone, some time in the future. But I think it makes an interesting point, that research is only as good as its sources, and that you cannot believe anyone or anything blindly, you have to check in more than one place in order to come up with the truth, or the best we can, ninety years after the issue.
And that is not all, as more research also seems to cast the June issue date into doubt, as the 1936 Open Championship was held on the 26th and 27th of June, 1936, surely too late in the month for the issuing of the cards to follow within it. The only way that a June issue may have been possible is if the author of the text wrote it in advance, knowing that the golf club would be altering the course length for that event. And this could well be the case as the new length quoted on the card is 7,100 yards - but the actual length differs, it is 7,341 yards. So if that was changed during the building, for some reason not foreseen, then it would mean the card was at least written before the actual tournament took place.
So do we have any golf fans who can verify any of my conjectures? If so, do get in touch, at webmaster@card-world.co.uk
As for our card, that too could create a quandary, for it is billed as being the "Royal Co. Down Golf Club, Newcastle", which at first could suggest Newcastle upon Tyne. But that too is incorrect - and only solved by reading the text on the reverse, part of which says "The course lies along the Dundrum Bay, with the Mourne Mountains, of which Slieve Donard is the monarch, towering above. Instituted in 1889, the club is one of the most important in Ireland."